Ecological study of the saddle backed tamarin (Saguinus fuscicollis) in Northern Bolivia

The author carried out an ecological survey of the saddle backed tamarin (Saguinus fuscicollis) in the Pando, northern Bolivia, from July to December 1979. It was found thatS. fuscicollis formed a family group consisting of two to seven individuals and spent almost all the daytime in moving to forage insects, although it fed mainly on fruits of the family Moraceae. Primary forest was preferred for sleeping sites, whereas the animals spent more hours in secondary forest than in primary forest in their home range. Marking sites were concentrated in the center of the home range but encounter behaviors tended to take place near the borderlines of the home range. It was also found that infants began feeding on fruit at about 5 weeks of age, whereas they shared insects obtained by their mothers until about 10 weeks of age.